Pipe

Pipe, also called tobacco pipe, hollow bowl used for smoking tobacco; it is equipped with a hollow stem through which smoke is drawn into the mouth. The bowl can be made of such materials as clay, corncob, meerschaum (a mineral composed of magnesia, silica, and water), and most importantly, briar-wood, the root of a species of heather.

Pipe.

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The smoking of tobacco through a pipe is indigenous to the Americas and derives from the religious ceremonies of ancient priests in Mexico. Farther north, American Indians developed ceremonial pipes, the chief of these being the calumet, or pipe of peace. Such pipes had marble or red steatite (or pipestone) bowls and ash stems about 30 to 40 inches (75–100 cm) long and were decorated with hair and feathers. The practice of pipe smoking reached Europe through sailors who had encountered it in the New World.

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one of the central ceremonial objects of the Northeast Indians and Plains Indians of North America, it was an object of profound veneration that was smoked on ceremonial occasions. Many Native Americans continued to venerate the Sacred Pipe in the early 21st century.

...the cost of and limiting access to tobacco products tend to reduce tobacco use (thereby reducing the risk of addiction) and can even prompt some addicted persons to quit smoking. Cigar smoking and pipe smoking tend to be taken up later in life than cigarette smoking, and cigar smokers and pipe smokers are less likely to inhale the smoke. As a consequence, the overall rate of addiction to...